Dear friends of the Russia & America Good Will Association (www.raga.org) and antiwar colleagues!

First, on behalf of Ed Lozansky, a RAGA associate and ally, a Press-Release for those near Moscow: The unveiling ceremony of the sculpture dedicated to the historical “Elbe River Linkage”.Monday, April 25, 2016, 11.30 AM Open to the public.

Since last RAGA Newsletter, Antidote 25 (March 31, 2016), I participated in a number of events in Washington DC, such as Ray McGovern's seminar on nuclear arms race and unsafety of civilian-use nuclear installation at the Festival Center in Adams Morgans on April 5, and US-Russia educational exchange forum on April 9th at the George Washington University, as well as its follow-up round-table discussion at the Russian Cultural Center on April 10th. On April 11th, I delivered two new Russian books to a former student of mine who now works at the Library of Congress.

On April 13th I had the pleasure of meeting and welcoming to Washington of Dr. John Andrew Morrow at The Westin Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, VA. In my previous newsletters I have already highlighted his booklet Six Covenants of the Prophet Mohammad with the Christians of His time . John brought a good news to Washington: Cambridge Scholars will publish Six Covenants in Six Languages, including my translation to Russian. The following two days John was scheduled to speak at National Press Club, the Capitol Hill and the White House.

Departing next day for San Francisco to see my family, I was unable to attend Dr. Morrow's lectures in Washington. But I am sure his main message is the same everywhere: the Daesh and other Muslim extremists do not represent the original Islam, its Medina constitution of religious tolerance, nor the documents produced under the auspices of the Prophet Muhammad. At the end of April Dr. Morrow will take his message to St. Petersburg where both he and myself are scheduled to speak at a major scholarly forum of Russia's Muslims.

As before, John asks all Muslims, Sunni, Shi’ite, and Sufi, from all schools and spiritual paths, scholars and non-scholars, to append their names to the following declaration in defense of the Christians: http://covenantsinitiative.com/

To honor Spring time, I suggest an easy reading of just four items: Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, a RAGA friend and associate, will discuss the results of Dutch referendum on Ukraine and his impressions of Russia's president Vladimir Putin's latest press conference; Chas Freeman will share his assessment of US global foreign strategy; and Graham E. Fuller will discuss Pope Francis' gradual shift from the long-accepted notion of "just war" in favor of "no war can or should be justified".

Dutch Referendum: a crack in the dam of European Russophobia. April 7, 2016By Gilbert Doctorow, Ph.D.

<<Will common sense finally prevail over the illogic, hubris and plain pig-headedness of those who control the EU institutions in Brussels, and afar from Berlin and Washington?

On this overcast Thursday morning in Brussels, the Capital of Europe, rays of bright sunshine are breaking through from the East as the latest results of vote counting in neighboring Netherlands suggest that yesterday’s referendum on the EU’s Association Agreement with Ukraine passed the 30% quorum requirement of all eligible voters, while those who cast their ballots came out nearly two to one against the Ukraine dealhttp://usforeignpolicy.blogs.lalibre.be/archive/2016/04/07/dutch-referendum-a-crack-in-the-dam-of-european-russophobia-1150587.htmlGilbert Doctorow, Fri, Apr 15, 2016, Putin's 2016 Marathon Q&A Session Was Polished, Folksy and Intelligent. An excellent roundup of the call-in Q&A with relevant context<<...In a remarkable book entitled The End of Tsarist Russia, the widely respected British historian a Dominic Lieven remarks that it was almost impossible for any man to live up to the expectations that the Russian people had of their Tsar. He said this to exculpate Nicholas II, whom history has judged very harshly.

In this context, I would note that if Putin is to be seen as a Tsar, his performance in Q&A, just as his daily performance of his duties deserves the very highest grades for intelligence, diligence, reserve, man management skills and the rest. A Tsar of this quality comes along once in 300 years.http://russia-insider.com/en/putins-annual-qa/ri13895?

The End of the American Empire by Chas W. Freeman, Jr., Apr 04, 2016The American Committee for East-West Accord, Ltd.

Remarks to East Bay Citizens for Peace, the Barrington Congregational Church, and the American Friends Service Committee on April 2, 2016 in Barrington, Rhode Island. Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.) is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

The highlight:<<Diplomacy-free foreign policy blows up enough things to liven up the TV news but it generates terrorist blowback and it’s expensive. There is a direct line of causation between European and American interventions in the Middle East and the bombings in Boston, Paris, and Brussels as well as the flood of refugees now inundating Europe. And so far this century, we’ve racked up over $6 trillion in outlays and future financial obligations in wars that fail to achieve much, if anything, other than breeding anti-American terrorists with global reach.>>http://lobelog.com/the-end-of-the-american-empire/

The Catholic Church, which over the centuries has blessed many dreadful wars, is shifting to an anti-war position favored by Pope Francis and more in line with Jesus’s teachings, writes ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller.

Pope Francis is on a roll. He has already roiled the waters of Western thinking on economics and society by touching on the dangers of Western capitalism drifting into socially destructive greed. He has now turned his focus to an even grander theme — the place of warfare in human life and the hallowed concept of a “just war.”

The conclave that the Pope is hosting in Rome this week is of exceptional importance to the international order. He is in the process of revising longstanding Catholic doctrine on war, and in particular, on the Christian concept of “just war.”

The Vatican now suggests that “just war” has become an obsolete concept; that the massive predominance of civilian casualties in modern warfare undercuts the moral ground for conceiving of almost any war as just. He also perceives the need to eliminate the underlying causes of violence and war and to reintroduce the power of nonviolent action to the world — values that emerge out of the human community itself rather than from the preferences of ruling elites....

...Now, nobody expects that war as a human phenomenon is going to come to an end anytime soon. Sadly, war may reside in the deeper recesses of the human condition; in many ways we humans glory in war. But the fact that Pope Francis speaks of the obsolescence of the idea of “just war” suggests that times are shifting at the elite level. When a major bulwark of moral philosophy like the Catholic Church begins to shift, the signal cannot be ignored...

...But Pope Francis is carrying the argument of moral conduct even further in proposing to develop a clearer understanding of all the teachings of the New Testament, but under contemporary realities. In colloquial language it means, “What would Jesus do?”...

...And of course such an issue is today particularly relevant to Muslims as well who are struggling to translate the moral precepts of the Quran into meaningful moral action today — on the personal level, but also the social, political and economic level.

“What would Muhammad do” might be a quite relevant question — requiring just as searching an answer as “what would Jesus do.” Does the so-called “Islamic State” really represent the moral precepts of Islam? Any more than the Crusaders represent Christianity? If not, how might Islam be best interpreted in a contemporary new ethical context?...

...The Pope has launched an important moral shift out of the camp of war and into the camp of peace — or at least, in contemporary terms, into “conflict management.” May he continue the pace.

Graham E. Fuller is a former senior CIA official, author of numerous books on the Muslim World; his latest book is Breaking Faith: A novel of espionage and an American’s crisis of conscience in Pakistan. (Amazon, Kindle) grahamefuller.com Read more https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/14/pope-francis-takes-on-just-war-theory/

Now more details of the April 25th event in Moscow mentioned above

<<At a low point in post-Cold War U.S.-Russian relations, a monument is going up this month in the heart of Moscow to celebrate one of the high points of cooperation between the U.S. and the bad old Soviet Union. U.S. and Russian backers say they will dedicate the Elbe River Memorial on April 25 at noon, 71 years to the day after American and Soviet troops first linked up at a river crossing not far from Berlin. The famous rendezvous of U.S. forces coming from the west and Russian troops advancing from the east effectively cut Nazi Germany into two. In a matter of weeks, Berlin had fallen, Adolf Hitler was dead and the war in Europe was effectively over.

“I see this memorial not only as a tribute to our joint victory in World War II, but something to cause both Americans and Russians to take a pause for reflection and realize that we are on a dangerous and previously unthinkable road to World War III,” said Edward Lozansky, founder and president of the American University in Moscow and a prime mover behind the memorial.

The author of the Elbe memorial is a famous Russian sculptor Alexander Burganov whose statues are displayed in many cities and museums around the world, including Washington, DC where his statue of great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin can be found on the campus of George Washington University.

Many Americans, including military officials plan to take part and speak alongside with the Russian VIPs and veterans.

Program:

11.30 AM: Musical performance by the military orchestra. Reconstruction of the Elbe River linkage

12.00 PM: Speeches by Russian and American Representatives

12.30 PM: The unveiling of the sculpture by the author Alexander Burganov. National Anthems of Russia and USA.

12.45 PM: Musical program, open air reception

Sponsors: Burganov Museum; American University in Moscow; International Union of Russian Compatriots: Club of Retired High-Ranking Military; Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in USA;